Estampes

Folio (280 x 440 mm). 2 parts in one volume. 20, 24, (2) pp.; 17, (1), 20, (2) pp. With engraved sanguine frontispiece, engraved sanguine title-page, engraved vignette in the text, and 127 hand-coloured engraved plates. Modern full calf, bound to style, in custom slipcase. First edition of Ridingers' last great suite of plates, posthumously completed and edited by his sons Johann Jakob and Martin Elias Ridinger. One of only two series of engravings that Ridinger published with coloured plates; very rarely encountered complete, as in the present specimen. - As always, part I has only a sanguine frontispiece with Ridinger's medallion portrait but no title proper. This is followed by a preface in French and German (with a biography of the artist); the title of the work is not announced until page 9 of the German introduction. Part II has a separate engraved title-page, also printed in sanguine. - Occasional light fingerstaining to the lower margins of some plates, otherwise very clean. Some occasional light foxing to text leaves. Spine a little sunned, front hinge professionally restored. From the collection of the Hessian chemist Waldemar Schwalbe (1882-1943) with his pretty silhouette bookplate, dated 1937. Nissen 3408. Thienemann/Schwarz 974-1102.